S.E.A Focus 2025 : I Gak Murniasih x Sinta Tantra: Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore

18 - 26 January 2025
Overview
SA Art Gallery is pleased to announce itsparticipation in S.E.A. Focus 2025 : Disconnected Contemporaries, held at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore. S.E.A. Focus serves as a premier platform and art market hub that celebrates Southeast Asian contemporary art, bringing together a curated selection of both established and emerging artists to foster deeper appreciation for the region’s artistic landscape.

For this edition of S.E.A. Focus, ISA ArtGallery is proud to present the works of I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih (b. 1966– d. 2006) and Sinta Tantra (b. 1979), two pioneering figures in contemporary Balinese women’s art. While their practices differ stylistically and conceptually, both artists interrogate themes of identity, culture, and form, offering works that exist at the intersection of global modernity and Balinese tradition.

I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih, widely recognized as a groundbreaking figure in Indonesian contemporary women’s art, was a self-taught artist known for her exploration of female identity, trauma, and sexuality. Born in Tabanan, Bali, Murniasih’s work engages deeply with personal and societal taboos, presenting the female body and psyche as sites of both struggle and liberation.

Since 1995, she actively exhibited her works in prominent local and international exhibitions, including her solo presentation at Seniwati Gallery in Ubud (1995), group exhibitions at Fringe Club in Hong Kong (1998), and subsequent shows in Melbourne, Australia, and Bologna, Italy (1998). Her oeuvre has since been acquired by prestigious institutions such as the Carnegie Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Singapore, Museum MACAN, and Tate Modern Gallery. Despite her untimely death in 2006, Murniasih’s evocative works endure as a powerful visual legacy.

Following a generation after Murniasih, Sinta Tantra has emerged as a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, sculpture, and installation. Born in New York to Balinese parents and raised in London, Tantra’s artistic vision is shaped by her global upbringing and cultural heritage. A graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art (2003) and the Royal Academy Schools (2006), Tantra has developed a distinct practice that fuses formalist abstraction with a blend of geometrical and organic shapes that tells personal and cultural narratives.

Her works have been showcased at international venues including the 60th Venice Biennale (2024), Sharjah Islamic Art Festival (2020), and Liverpool Biennial (2012), alongside large-scale public murals across London, Jakarta, Paris, and Seoul. Tantra’s works have also been featured in institutional exhibitions at the Saatchi Gallery, the Sir John Soane’s Museum, Museum MACAN, and Tumurun Museum, further cementing her position as a leading figure in contemporary art.

The works of Sinta Tantra and I GAK Murniasih provide a vital contribution to the ongoing dialogue within contemporary Balinese and Southeast Asian art. Tantra’s vibrant geometric abstraction and Murniasih’s evocative visual subjects reflect their personal and cultural histories while simultaneously challenging traditional boundaries within the art world. Their works stand as important expressions of women artists’ resilience, pushing against the constraints of societal expectations and redefining the landscape of contemporary art.
Works